Pens 5, P-Bruins 4: 3rd-period rally falls short in Game 7

After the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins exploded for five goals on six shots in the first 7:16 of the second period, it looked like the Providence Bruins would go down without a fight in Game Seven of their Calder Cup series on Wednesday night.

After the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins exploded for five goals on six shots in the first 7:16 of the second period, it looked like the Providence Bruins would go down without a fight in Game Seven of their Calder Cup series on Wednesday night.

But the P-Bruins weren’t dead and buried just yet.

Providence mounted a furious third-period comeback that ultimately fell one goal short as the Penguins hung on by the skin of their teeth for a 5-4 win at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes/Barre.

After winning the series four games to three, the Penguins advance to play the St. John’s IceCaps in the Eastern Conference finals.

Down 5-0, Providence’s comeback started with a shorthanded goal by David Warsofsky with 54 seconds left in the second period.

Alex Khokhlachev cut the Pens lead to 5-3 with a goal at 6:43, silencing the crowd of 3,613.

Then, with Philip Samuelsson in the box for slashing, Khokhlachev took a pass from Ryan Spooner and brought the P-Bruins to within a goal at 9:55.

With Mannino looking unsteady and the Pens on the run, Providence had a pair of glittering chances to tie the game with five minutes left. Alex Fallstrom had the puck on his stick and lots of net to shoot at, but shanked his shot. Then Nick Johnson was stopped by Mannino from close range.

After Providence killed a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty called at 15:58, Khokhlchev set up Seth Griffith, who was denied on a great save by Mannino.

P-Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy pulled goalie Malcolm Subban (11 saves) in the closing minute, but the Bruins couldn’t get a good shot.

Khokhlachev finished with two goals for the P-Bruins. Spooner and Warsofsky had a goal and an assist. With a goal and an assist, former Tabor Academy captain Jayson Megna was the only Penguins with multiple points.

After a scoreless first period, the wheels came off for the P-Bruins in a stunning second-period collapse.

It started with a blind centering pass by Anton Zlobin that hit the foot of Providence defenseman Chris Casto and bounced into the net behind Niklas Svedberg (11 saves) just 77 seconds into the second period, putting the P-Bruins behind, 1-0.

Providence was still cursing its bad luck when Jared Knight was called for holding after horse-collaring a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton player. Conor Sheary scored on the power play at 3:24 to make it 2-0.

Megna took a nifty drop pass from ex-Brown captain Harry Zolnierczyk and blasted a shot over Svedberg’s catching glove at 5:22. Just 13 seconds later, the hometown fans hadn’t even settled back into their seats when Brian Gibbons made it 4-0. That was it for Svedberg, as Subban came on in relief.

Then, with Craig Cunningham in the box for interference, Brendan Mikkelson’s shot from the blue line hit Providence’s Mike Moore in the skate and deflected into the net at 7:16. 5-0.

Providence finally found some life late in the second when Warsofsky’s shot from the blue line beat Mannino.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton outshot Providence, 10-3, in a scoreless first period. While the Pens spent a lot of time in the P-Bruins zone, they didn’t have as many good early chances on Svedberg as they did in Game Six on Monday night.

The Pens recorded the first three shots and it looked like they scored the first goal when former Boston College defenseman Brian Dumoulin shot the puck into the net at 3:52. But the goal was waved off. Providence’s Spooner was tripped by Zolnierczyk, which allowed Dumoulin to grab the puck and fire it in.

Instead of a 1-0 lead, the Penguins had to kill off Zolnierczyk’s tripping penalty. Johnson had the only decent chance for Providence, but Mannino made the save.